Ouch, 6-19 for Whitcomb and 7-23 for Williams really hurts. Something definitely looks like it was working for Melbourne's perimeter defense. This would be the intrinsic unfairness with the system where a league becomes virtual knockout at the end. You spend all year proving who the best team is and then decide the actual winners in a week or two at the finish.

I haven't managed to time it right to check whether I can watch a live game, but any of the archived videos of full games on that Fox site say they're unavailable outside Australia (suggesting live ones probably won't work either). Which is a bit of a shame. Seems like pretty unnecessary geo-blocking considering the WNBL presumably won't make any money selling games outside Australia.

Yeah, it's a pity. I'm guessing it's probably just a general policy that they can't be bothered modifying specifically for the WNBL games. I'll be trying to upload the playoffs in a more timely manner than the regular season in case anyone is interested in checking them out.

Pretty sure Williams nailed her first 4 shots of the game, but it was a brickfest after that. Lots of work for Perth to do before game 2 to try and generate some better offence. It needs to start with some half-decent D.

Pretty sure Williams nailed her first 4 shots of the game, but it was a brickfest after that.

And to some extent it brings us full circle all the way back to what we talked about when they signed her. She took 23 shots, in an important game, when her jumper clearly wasn't falling - and shot zero free throws. When you're stupidly quick and can't get anything to go down, drive by someone, throw your body into a defender, and get to the damn line. Guys like Wade, Harden and Westbrook have built their careers on plays like that when they've needed them.

I really think that needs to be the next step in her offensive development. You'd love to see her shoot a bit more and a bit better from deep, but I think the 'getting fouled' thing is more important. Contact can be a good thing.

Game 1 of the [2] vs [3] semi final series was just as big a fizzer as last night's, sadly. Hamson reverted to the version we're more familiar with, Wilson & Ebzery's shooting deserted them, and Taylor was barely recognisable as a player in the MVP conversation as the Fire dominated the game after the 1st quarter. They've got the deepest roster in the league and everyone came to play tonight.
Top 2 seeds are now both firmly on the ropes.

I would agree.
Much depends on the respective mind sets of the teams that are 1-0 up now. Townsville & Melbourne are the 2 best rosters, with mental lapses being their main problems all season. If they are focussed now that it is playoff mode then they should meet in the finals.
Of the other 2, Sydney have the better balance, as well as championship experience. Perth's main worry for me right now is fatigue. Their schedule lately has been brutal. How the hell they deal with Cambage tonight is the other obvious concern.

How does Cambage look and do you think she'd realistically report to Dallas this year? It's also important to the Opals that she is ready for the Worlds.

At this stage I am still optimistic about Liz showing up in Dallas, but I'm not super optimistic about what she will produce once she is there.
As always, I can't deny her ability, and physically she looks in fine shape, but mentally she is still a letdown, as demonstrated by the ugly incident with Mistie Bass earlier in the season and her post-game whingefest 2 nights ago. Apparently she is above being called for obvious fouls in this league, but maybe the WNBA will treat her like the queen she is.

How does Cambage look and do you think she'd realistically report to Dallas this year? It's also important to the Opals that she is ready for the Worlds.

At this stage I am still optimistic about Liz showing up in Dallas, but I'm not super optimistic about what she will produce once she is there.
As always, I can't deny her ability, and physically she looks in fine shape, but mentally she is still a letdown, as demonstrated by the ugly incident with Mistie Bass earlier in the season and her post-game whingefest 2 nights ago. Apparently she is above being called for obvious fouls in this league, but maybe the WNBA will treat her like the queen she is.

Wow. She hasn't changed. That's a shame. Maybe she shouldn't come over then because the refs here are clearly going to play favorites with Charles and Griner and Jones and Fowles because she is just as good as them so clearly the refs are cheating her.

Melbourne completed their sweep of the Lynx tonight and are the first team into the finals series. It was an intense, see-sawing game, but in the 2nd half the Lynx looked noticeably worn down to me, and it showed in some of their decision-making down the stretch. Boomers were sloppy at times as a team, but got plenty out of Cambage, Garrick & O'Hea in particular, and had a more even spread of contributors in general.

The other semi final series end in a sweep as well, again after a close contest. This one was a real grind, ugly at times, neither team ever got any flow happening.
Asia Taylor looked more like her usual self, but started to run out of gas in the 2nd half. Sydney Wiese has had a fairly underwhelming season overall, but was important today for the Fire.
Interestingly, Tahlia Tupaea played her first minutes of the season today. As you can imagine she wasn't her usual self, but it's nice to know she's healthy again.

Is it normal for the Aussie season to end so early? I thought China was the one that ended the earliest.

No, this is the first time we've tried the compact season. 21 games per team over 13 weeks, whereas last season was 24 games over 19 weeks.
The new schedule was largely a result of trying to get the league back on tv, as was the awful timing of the semi finals. They have tried to cram as much of the season as possible into the "gap" between the mens football leagues ending, and the tennis and women's football league starting.
On the plus side, it does make the league more attractive to players who also play WNBA and want a break in their year, and players who want to play both WNBL and in Europe. I'm not sure how much financial sense it makes for the clubs though. It'll be interesting to see how it is assessed and what adjustments (if any) they make for next season.

It is interesting that the two finalists have very little reliance on imports. Smart is a solid enough player at the Australian level, but she is not a key player and they never bothered replacing their other spot. Wiese and Mincy have not been that critical this season either.

It is interesting that the two finalists have very little reliance on imports. Smart is a solid enough player at the Australian level, but she is not a key player and they never bothered replacing their other spot. Wiese and Mincy have not been that critical this season either.

Yes, that's a fair observation. I'm not sure if there's any cause-effect going on with that though.
From the start, Melbourne & Townsville were widely acknowledged as having the 2 best rosters, so it's no real surprise to anyone that they're meeting in the grand finals (my prediction before the season was Townsville finishing #1 and Melbourne #2, with Melbourne winning the title. I thought it would take them half a season to get going due to the injuries they started the season with, and with Liz coming off a basketball-free 12 months)

I'm finding it hard to predict now, though. It's anyone's series. I slightly favour Melbourne as a team, but Townsville's home court advantage is a good one.

Was not a pretty game, which is not unusual for the finals (or as we call them, the Grand Finals). Melbourne's supporting cast were a big part of them winning the semi finals, but they went MIA today. Cambage looked as focussed as I've seen her all season, but didn't have enough help outside the always reliable O'Hea. They shot 3/23 from 3 point range as a team. Meanwhile the Fire had a more balanced spread of threats.

Video is linked below. (If nothing else, check out Liz's cheeky steal & basket with 5 seconds left in the game )

Crazy game. Suzy on fire early, followed by mostly garbage from everyone for the remainder of the first half. For the remainder of the game, really. This was most definitely not a showcase of smart decisions and elite execution under pressure.
With their season on the line, the Boomers came out after half time and somehow sucked even harder than before ... but mid-way through the quarter things started to turn around. The crowd got loud, the Fire got passive, and went things got do-or-die down the stretch, DJ Lizzy C came up big and carried her team over the line. Kalani Purcell the unsung hero in my books, for keeping her team alive when it looked like completely falling apart in the 3rd.

That was a great game , i watched Liz specifically the entire game . Batkovic got under her skin the 1st half , but i love the aggressiveness she played with in the 4th QTR thats the liz i want to see in dallas. I see she still throws cheap shots though , live with the good and bad i guess .

Suzy Batkovic got her team off to a good start today and her team never looked back. Townsville again crowded Cambage at every opportunity and dared someone else to step up and beat them. Melbourne's response was to shoot 4/34 from the perimeter and sink like a big ol' bag of bricks.
Townsville won their 3rd title in 4 seasons, with Suzy an easy choice for Finals MVP.

Let's see how many players end up signing elsewhere now that the season is done for everyone. So far it looks like Laia Palau and Ruth Hamblin have signed with Bourges and Alice Kunek also went to France and signed with Tarbes.

With all the big news about another signing, Nat Hurst slipped under the radar and joined Gorzow in Poland.

Yep, and Alice Kunek & Ruth Hamblin are both currently playing temporary injury replacement roles in France. At one point I heard that Abby Bishop was off to Europe as well but maybe that fell through because she still seems to be in Australia.

It's presumably a bit more complicated for some of the Aussies this year because of the Commonwealth Games. They can't commit through the end of many of the European seasons if they're hoping to be on the Gold Coast in April.

The one and only Natalie Burton signed with Herner in Germany. That's interesting in the sense that I was under the impression that the pay there is not much more than for the non-national Australian leagues.

I'm not sure if it's a mistake or not since she just got there, but she's listed with UK citizenship on the league website, which would be interesting if true.

Didn't FIBA make it so that once you actually represent a country internationally that has to count as your nationality, regardess of what other passport you might also hold? Burton's definitely played once or twice for Australia; I remember the complaining.

Didn't FIBA make it so that once you actually represent a country internationally that has to count as your nationality, regardess of what other passport you might also hold? Burton's definitely played once or twice for Australia; I remember the complaining.

Yes, but in the alternate timeline, you would be the one doing the complaining and not our Australian contingent. It would be good news for Eilidh Simpson at least.

It would be funny if she suited up for a non-FIBA event, like England in the Commonwealth Games, beat Australia, and then threw it back at the haters.

I should probably learn the German foreign player rules to see if it's beneficial to have an EU passport. Clearly it's not the 6 German, 6 non-German rules that the men's league has.

For the record, I'm not a Nat Burton hater. I'm a Perth Lynx fan and I cheer for her every game.
As an Opals fan, it is Brendan Joyce that my hate is/was directed at.
Just thought I'd clear that up
Go get 'em, Nat!

With all the big news about another signing, Nat Hurst slipped under the radar and joined Gorzow in Poland.

Yep, and Alice Kunek & Ruth Hamblin are both currently playing temporary injury replacement roles in France. At one point I heard that Abby Bishop was off to Europe as well but maybe that fell through because she still seems to be in Australia.

Bishop popped up at Dynamo Novosibirsk in Russia.

Suzy Batkovic showed up at just the right time for Lattes Montpellier as they got a great win in France with her carrying over her WNBL form.

With all the big news about another signing, Nat Hurst slipped under the radar and joined Gorzow in Poland.

Yep, and Alice Kunek & Ruth Hamblin are both currently playing temporary injury replacement roles in France. At one point I heard that Abby Bishop was off to Europe as well but maybe that fell through because she still seems to be in Australia.

Bishop popped up at Dynamo Novosibirsk in Russia.

Suzy Batkovic showed up at just the right time for Lattes Montpellier as they got a great win in France with her carrying over her WNBL form.